GUEST BLOG: Farmwatch: Pig farming exposed – Now it’s up to you

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If you’ve been watching the news recently, you’ll notice that pig farming is under the biggest spotlight it’s seen in over 5 years, when we saw Mike King’s emotional reaction to a pig farm in Levin.

This year, it started again with an item on TV1’s “Sunday” show, which showed two sets of footage shot a year apart of dead and dying piglets lying in their own faeces, and overcrowded sheds. It also showed pigs in “farrowing crates”, which is what they put mummy pigs into when they don’t want her to move or turn around for almost five weeks at a time. Even considering how relaxed the law is towards a lot of what we saw, the conditions were bad. And despite telling the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) about this farm in early 2013, the conditions were worse than our first visit.

During the item, a spectacularly embarrassing interview was screened with Nathan Guy, the Minister for Primary Industries. Nathan condemned the actions of Farmwatch, saying to the TVNZ reporter that the evidence should have gone to MPI first (despite two complaints being made to MPI within a year) and went on to claim the farm monitoring system to be “extremely robust”. Nathan, being the glorious leader for the heavy hand of animal welfare enforcement, has since told the pig farming industry to “pull their socks up”.

After the footage was aired, NZ Pork and the farm owner both seemed more concerned about the legality of our sneaky visit than the pigs dying in awful squalor right under their nose. The farmer also suggested that the hundreds of rats seen on multiple different locations on his farm were brought in by members of our group. I’ve never met this man, but trying to figure out how he thought this might be a believable lie makes my brain bleed. What he’s suggesting is that we carried several dozen kilograms of rats into the farm in the dead of night (without crushing them to death), released them for shots, then gathered them back up to use in further shots. He must think we’re all stupid.

The general vibe we got was that all organisations who make a living off pig farming were trying to say “we don’t suck, those activists suck!”, while trying to brush the matter under the carpet as being an “isolated incident”. Nobody claimed responsibility. Probably because it’s a stupid system that nobody would want to put their name next to.

After the giant blame game, we handed over some more footage to TVNZ. It included some hidden camera footage of farm workers loading pigs onto a truck. But when I say “loading pigs onto a truck” I actually mean kicking them, beating them, crushing them together while they scream in panic and throwing them around like they’re bags of inanimate goods. Needless to say, we got this footage to MPI straight away. I say that like it might achieve something, but given our previous experience with MPI, it may have been more effective to give the footage to Barney the Dinosaur.

The footage we gave to TVNZ also featured some footage we took inside a pig farm in Taranaki, where we found a farrowing shed full of pigs in farrowing crates (duh), but also a shopping trolley that looked like it was from the set of a B-grade horror movie. It wasn’t just the dark rusty hue caused by caked on dried blood and poo that made it look like murders took place on it, but also the piglet tails that were displayed on the side of it. I’m not even kidding. Some sick fuck decided to cut piglets tails off and hang them on the side of it like rotting trophies. This footage will be on our website soon, so keep your eyes peeled if you don’t believe me.

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But all of this is okay, right? Because bacon! *rolls eyes*

The bottom line is this: It doesn’t matter what anyone has to say about this anymore. The evidence speaks for itself and it’s telling us that we suck at taking care of animals. The indisputable fact is that cruelty and violence are inherent costs of exploiting animals for economic gain. It doesn’t matter what the government changes, and it doesn’t matter how how much grass and pretty new sheds farms have. The only way we can change this violence is by taking animals off our menu. If New Zealand follows suit with the rest of the western world, the government will eventually legislate against the right to speak out about these injustices. We’re trying really hard and we’re running out of time. The animals can’t wait. The change begins with you. So what will you do?

 

 

Farmwatch serve as a voice for animals by investigating and exposing cruelty, and rescuing animals in need of care. Animals experience feelings very similar to our own and deserve to live a natural life, free from suffering and slaughter.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Our household will not be buying pork until this problem is sorted. We refuse to be part of the problem by supporting such a industry with our money.

    Hopefully other New Zealanders will follow.

    • Why would you ever want to go back to pork even if they are somehow able to meet the current legal requirements.

      It’s an industry based on death camps. Intelligent beings are tortured and slaughtered for your tasty treats.

      They are innocent and deserve our protection.

      Pork isnt even healthy – bacon etc all contribute to heart disease and obessity.

  2. Once upon a time we farmed enough animals to feed our families. We had a bond, a contract with each animal to provide sustenance as long as we cared for them with love, kindness and respect. We once provided enough food without waste nor chemicals and our plates represented love not violence.

    We now put the care of animals in the hands of a few, we leave the ability to feed our children to corporate supply chains and we poison our country while our plates represent violence and dirty food. As a society do we really want this?

  3. I’m glad I’ve been a vegetarian for years but thank you for your bravery and persistence on this, the conditions for those pigs were unbelievable and concentration-camp like. Does Farmwatch have somewhere to donate to. We have pigs living near us that live outside and the piglets tear around madly, they’re so cute and funny. Why can’t they be farmed outside like this more?

  4. Frank I am certainly pleased that you are reacting in an ethical manner and refusing to buy pork at present. But why restrict your ethics? There are free range piggeries available, monitored by the SPCA, in which the worst abuses shown in the footage probably don’t take place. But even free range farming is not excempt from some welfare issues, including muddy conditions and pigs getting sunburned. In addition, whatever the system, the pigs are still slaughtered with hideous cruelty to produce pig meat.

    There is a better way, and that is to go plant based (or can I mention the dreaded “V” word here). There are tasty and nutritious plant based foods available, plenty of evidence from reputable scientists that animal protein is not a necessary requirement to gain all the nutrients we need, and increasing evidence on how bad for us animal products are. As Matthew Scully put it, it used to be thought that killing animals was a necessary evil. If we take away the necessity, what is left?

    Well planned vegan meals (there I said it), are not only better for our health, the health of the planet and the animals, they are better for our pocket. The New Zealand Medical Journal published a list of protein per dollar spent for a number of plant and animal products. Plant products were by far the best value for money.

    For many of us, one barrier is ignorance on how to cook plant based meals. However, a number of organisations, including vegetarian societies and the Seventh Day Adventist church now provide free or subsidised vegetarian cooking lessons. There are also terabytes of vegan recipes available online.

  5. I stopped eating farmed pork years ago, because of this very reason. I do still eat meat but wish i didn’t, wish that a veggie diet came naturally to me, I need a lot of education to be able to do it, but i would actually like to do it.
    The smell of bacon frying is still very tempting, but my resolve is real where pig farming is concerned.
    I will still eat a bit of wild pork if offered it, the gathering of it is much closer to how a pig may meet its maker in the wild, and there are no other predators to control their numbers, same with deer.

  6. I have been only eating free range bacon for 5 + years. I’ve never liked pork. Free range chickens & eggs of course too.

    My one son is a supertaster & had never eaten a bean of of meat in his life. We didn’t figure out he was a supertaster until he was about 15. He’s in his mid 20’s now & has just started eating fish but he’s always been heathy, very active & fit.

  7. Haven’t bought a SINGLE pork product since the first Mike King exposé. This shit would stop near overnight if everyone simply stopped supporting the industry as it is currently practiced. It’s not like we need pork products to live. Buying pork that you don’t know the source of is endorsing the status quo. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

    • Years before that I read Annie Proulx’ book “The Old Ace in the Hole” and that was enough for me

  8. But….Bacon!

    Look….while pork products can be imported, all we can do is gradually improve the conditions here in NZ, rather than ban it. After all, at least then we have some idea.

    Banning pork (local or imported) will never ever ever ever ever happen. Ever. As in, so long as bacon is so damn delicious…it will always be in demand.

    Let’s make that demand work in a positive way.

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